What are Rodster^® owners saying about the Rodster^® Street Rod?

A few words with BOB PHELPS

Fort Meyers, Florida

Bob Phelps was half-way through building his Rodster when we recorded his first impressions here. He followed up later, (see below) when he completed his Rodster.

What’s your car history? Were you ever into building them?

When I was a child, a kid, with my father. When I saw the Rodster in one of the Kit Cars, it intrigued me because it was unique.

What kind of cars did you build with your father?

We had a ’53 Chevy, a V8 was put in, that was my first car, a ’56 Chevy Vette, I paid $150 for and it had no floor panels, no rockers, the fenders were all gone, rusted out. We ended up rebuilding that, put a rebuilt short block engine in it and a stick transmission and I got it painted and it was cool car. I had it in high school.

Bob Phelps inspects his Rodster^® shipment on arrival.

Do you work on your own car now?

When I get the chance. Yes. Between that and boats and projects, yes. Currently, I have a ’69 El Camino; I’m doing work on that and the Rodster, working on the boat.

What kind of boat?

We have a 25 foot Well Craft.

Will the El Camino be towing it?

No, the El Camino actually is my driver, the car I’m going to be driving all the time. I live in Florida, you need air conditioning. I still drive it and use it as a truck. It’s definitely a 2 and with some work, it could be a 1, but I’m not going to show it at this point. Not a day goes by that when I pull up at a stop sign, somebody doesn’t give me a thumbs up or take a look at the vehicle. That’s what I expect to happen even more with the Rodster.

Have you seen any driving around?

I’m the first one in Florida.

Cutting away the Blazer roof is almost therapeutic.

How far along is your car?

I’m about half-way done with it. I’m at the point where I need to buy the tires and wheels so I can go on to the back half and move forward.

How easy is it to assemble?

Scale of 1 to 10, probably a 4. Three to four. It’s not that difficult at all. If you have a little common sense and follow the pictures, and the instructions are so simple. I’ve only had to call Henry a few times and say to him, “What did you mean by this?” “Tell me how to do this.” And he explained it to me and I went, “Oh yeah, that makes sense.”

With the roof off, the donor vehicle is almost ready.

How many hours do you have in it so far?

I sort of keep track, and then I quit, so I really don’t know. But mine is unique because I had to pull the engine. I bought a Blazer that was wrecked, and I’ve had to pull the engine and transmission. That took me a lot more time….

Did you have to repair your Blazer?

The engine was frozen up. So I had to pull it out. I bought another wrecked Blazer.

How was the packaging of the kit?

Came in one package. It was very well packaged. Very securely packaged.

How about the hand laid fiberglass?

It’s an excellent job of fiberglass.

Did you buy the manual before you bought the kit so you could see if it was something you wanted to get into?

Yeah. There’s a lot of less than honorable people in this business. There are a lot of horror stories out there about buying kit cars and then they never get the kit.

Fitting the rear end is a snap.

You mean you pay your money and they never send it?

Yeah. Myself being in Florida and Henry in California, I couldn’t go to the factory and pick it up, for economic reasons. So I bought the manual first. Of course, he refunded the money, so it’s no big deal. But I wanted to look at it and see how complicated it was. A lot of it I didn’t understand at the beginning, but once I got into it, I did.

How much do you have invested so far?

I don’t know. Whatever I paid for the kit, and the Blazer was $800… I probably got another $200 on top of that. I’ve got all my receipts, if I had it put together, I’d give you a definite number. But I haven’t got the tires and wheels.

Are you planning to do anything custom?

I talked about putting in a nitrous bottle. Giving it another 100, 125 horsepower. Makes it a lot faster. But besides that, no, it’s going to be so unique that I don’t see how you need to make it any more customized than it is.

Two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive?

Two-wheel.

Did you get the kit on time?

I would have liked it sooner. It was a reasonable time.

Have you ever built other kits?

No.

Your business is selling insurance to car dealers?

Used car dealers. For their buildings, property, clients, tools…

So with your contacts did that help you make a deal on your Blazer?

No, as a matter of fact it didn’t. I bought it off the online service on the Internet.

I’ll call when you get it completed and find out the reactions to the car.

Women will be falling all over it.

They’re not already?

Not in this condition.

Good. They might hurt themselves.

And later...